While attention will rightly be paid to the Cardi Bs and Futures of this world when they touch down at Parc Olympique this weekend for the inaugural Metro Metro urban music festival, without a strong backbone of Montreal artists it would be hard to imagine an exclusively rap-based fest of this magnitude ever being possible in the first place.

Montreal has little trouble attracting international rap acts to its festivals and venues throughout the year, but all the while, the local rap scene — in English and French — has been gradually building momentum in the shadow of the genre’s biggest markets. With over a dozen Quebec acts playing each day, Metro Metro will serve as the largest assembly of local rap acts on one bill. Ticket buyers may be there for the big New York and Atlanta headliners, but they might leave with an added appreciation of what’s being created within the 514 and 450 area codes.

With a rookie festival set to take flight, hyped releases by the likes of Fouki and Dead Obies, as well as the upcoming launch of Loud’s anticipated album Tout ça pour ça on May 24 — with two Bell Centre concerts, May 31 and June 1, marking the first time a local rapper will headline the home of the Habs — Rap Keb has never been hotter, and this summer it appears poised to hit unprecedented new heights of public recognition.

For the artists involved, an all-rap festival is a rare chance to perform in front of thousands. A well-received set could be a springboard to more streams and more social media follows, both vital tools for young acts today.

“It feels amazing! I feel important for once,” says Montreal rapper Mike Shabb, who is releasing a new EP, Gloom, on May 23, and plays Metro Metro Saturday at 1 p.m. “English-speaking rappers rarely get any recognition here. It’ll truly be a day to remember. It’ll be a great opportunity to meet people from outside the Quebec industry, too, which is what we need. Montreal is full of talented English-speaking artists, but it’s hard for us out here. We got rappers who are just as talented as Americans across the border.”

Barriers that once seemed unbreakable are now being surpassed with relative ease. The aforementioned Bell Centre shows by Loud constitute a new high-water mark; previously, Metropolis was generally considered the biggest venue a local rap act could fill. Loud’s meteoric rise — recently put on full display in the video Fallait y aller, in which he rode the Bell Centre ice on a Zamboni in a uniquely Montreal Drake-on-the-CN-Tower-type flex — was aided by another huge moment for the genre here: his own Toutes les femmes savent danser becoming a crossover FM radio hit.

Francophone rap songs have crept onto the FM dial from time to time, but usually were one-offs and did little to reshape pop radio’s typical makeup. As the first deliberately pop-friendly track of the Rap Keb era to crack the radio code, Toutes les femmes savent danser felt like something different — like a road map to getting played in the mainstream. It remains to be seen how other rappers will adjust their sound to placate the establishment, but there’s now proof it can be done.

Perhaps more indicative of where radio is going overall, this year Bell Media’s iHeartRadio established its own Rap Keb digital radio station to vie for young listeners who long ago abandoned terrestrial radio for streaming and online sources. Streaming giants Apple Music and Spotify have their own constantly updated Quebec rap playlists.

Shades of Culture were part of Montreal rap’s first boom.Montreal Gazette files

Historically, rap in Montreal reached a first plateau in May-June 1998, when Dubmatique headlined Metropolis, Sans Pression played the Spectrum and Shades of Culture released their sole LP, Mindstate. Since then, the genre has had its ups and downs here, mostly receding into the background during the indie rock explosion of the 2000s.

At the start of this decade, things started to perk up again, especially on the francophone side, where Dead Obies and Loud Lary Ajust (Loud’s former group) turned a new generation on to an original franglais rap style that didn’t try to copycat what was going on in the United States. Both crews went on to fill Metropolis, sprouting a number of side projects and like-minded peers along the way. In 2019 alone, it feels like a week hasn’t gone by without a noteworthy local rap release or show.

Depending on how you look at it, Metro Metro could either be the apex of this musical generation, or the moment when rap started becoming the dominant music genre in Quebec — not just in terms of exports, but among artists here as well. In France, rap brothers PNL are currently all the rage, while Latin trap is having a major moment in the Spanish-speaking world, so there’s ample evidence of rap’s growth outside of anglophone North America.

In concentrated form, Metro Metro will showcase the best Montreal’s rap scene has to offer, minus Loud and a few others (including KGoon, who was scheduled but had to drop out). Montrealers are used to rap acts on stages at Osheaga, Les Francos and the jazz fest, but they’ve never had an event quite like this, with wall-to-wall rap acts for an entire weekend. Steve Jolin, founder of influential label 7ième Ciel, which houses fest performers Alaclair Ensemble, Fouki and Zach Zoya, said: “I think for the fans and local artists, this will go down as one of the most intense hip-hop weekends Montreal has ever experienced.”

Anyone expecting Metro Metro to go without a hitch may not be familiar with events such as last weekend’s Rolling Loud festival in Florida, where hiccups included Lil Wayne’s no-show.Rich Fury /
AP

No one denies the viability and popularity of all-rap lineups, but ensuring everything goes without a hitch may be a fool’s errand. Last weekend, Florida rap festival and Metro Metro inspiration Rolling Loud celebrated its latest edition. It was a mixed bag fêting the biggest stars in music, but it also featured worries of gun violence, the arrest of rapper Kodak Black (who recently had a Montreal show cancelled due to legal problems), a prominent no-show (Lil Wayne) and myriad technical issues.

Montreal rap fans are no strangers to rappers’ volatility either. Last year, the Santa Teresa Festival in Ste-Thérèse was dealt a last-minute blow when headliners Trippie Redd, Ski Mask the Slump God and Lil Uzi Vert all skipped out due to supposed border crossing troubles. It’s inevitable someone will bail on Metro Metro, no matter the due diligence of organizers. At the very least, a stable of locals already in town can pick up the slack where needed.

And Rolling Loud’s response on Twitter to the controversy surrounding its weekend? “And if you didn’t enjoy Rolling Loud despite the hiccups, stay home next year … this is hip-hop.”

Metro Metro organizers and attendees would be wise to heed that advice and simply enjoy what should be an exciting ride. Regardless of how it goes down, there’s never been anything like it in Montreal.

Asked what a festival like Metro Metro might mean for Quebec rap going forward, and if the city can sustain a major rap festival annually, Jolin responded: “Only time will tell. But I feel as long as the event presents major acts, the local acts and hip-hop in general will benefit from the given exposure. Hopefully, one day a local act will headline the festival.”

AT A GLANCE

The Metro Metro festival takes place Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19 on the Esplanade of Parc Olympique. The music is scheduled to start at noon each day. Weekend passes are sold out; single-day passes cost $120 for Saturday, $115 for Sunday. For more information, see metrometro.ca.

Related

Alaclair Ensemble: true originals may have written the definitive Quebec rap anthem.Olivier Robitaille

Beyond the headliners: Five acts to watch at Metro Metro

FouKi(Saturday, 3 p.m., Bud Light Stage): The colourful world of Plateau rapper Fouki comes with its own unique lexicon sure to confound listeners at first, but pretty soon you may start humming along with the wonos and yeyeys from his latest album, ZayZay, which arrived to great fanfare at a sold-out Club Soda launch this month. Hugely popular in Quebec, it’s hard to picture his brand of linguistic spaghetti fitting elsewhere.

Zach Zoya(Saturday, 5 p.m., Motorola Stage): The Rouyn-Noranda native raps in English, which may give the 21-year-old a leg up on his peers in terms of cracking the Canadian and American markets. So far his output has been minimal yet tantalizing: a lean 10-minute collaborative EP with Laval producer High Klassified, and a pair of singles. A commanding set at last November’s M for Montreal showcased his ability to rile up a crowd.

Alaclair Ensemble(Saturday, 9:20 p.m., Motorola Stage): True originals in the Rap Keb space, this Quebec City crew found fame rewriting provincial history as a group of oddball republican insurrectionists, but have proved adept at writing galvanizing rap hits when needed. Case in point: Ça que c’tait from the 2016 album Les Frères Cueilleurs — doo-wop outro notwithstanding — might go down as the definitive Quebec rap anthem when it’s all said and done.

Tizzo(Sunday, 1:40 p.m., Bud Light Stage): Laval pair Tizzo and Shreez are as productive as any act in the province. They’ve churned out countless self-released mixtapes and videos that land more often than not, with strong lyrical imagery to back up their toughened beats. A leading exemplar of their no-nonsense trap style is 2018’s On Fouette.

Enima(Sunday, 6:50 p.m., Motorola Stage): Samir Slimani might be better known for his legal troubles — he was acquitted of an illegal weapon charge last September — but he’s a major force in Quebec rap online, where his YouTube videos rack up millions of views. His latest full-length release, De rien, came out in March. His video for Détour, released a month after his acquittal, doesn’t shy away from the incident.